Sex Crimes

NV Law Would Restrict Offenders From Living Within 1,000 Feet of Victims

Nevada lawmakers are considering a bill that would restrict sex offenders from living within 1,000 of their victims. From San Jose Mercury News:

Nevada lawmakers debated a bill Tuesday that would provide additional protections to victims of sex offenders, by prohibiting the offenders from moving within 1,000 feet of the victims.

Assemblyman Lynn Stewart, R-Henderson, who introduced AB325, told the Assembly Corrections, Parole and Probation Committee that as the law is written now, offenders could move across the street or next door to their victims.

Committee members also were told by a young mother, who was raped by her babysitter's boyfriend when she was four years old, that her attacker years later moved next door to her grandmother, where the victim used to live.

"I'm living this whole thing all over again when I go to my grandmother's house," she said. "I no longer want to go over there. I have to face him looking at me, laughing at me."

Lawmakers were told that in some instances, sex offenders have a difficult time finding a place to live because entire towns are off-limits. One offender moved to a rural area to comply with the rules, but when housing developments sprung up around him, he had to move away, Stewart said.

Nevada Man Convicted of Filming Himself Raping Toddler

A Nevada man has been convicted of videotaping himself sexually abusing a toddler. From CNN:

After deliberating for more than four hours, a jury convicted a Nevada man of 22 counts Tuesday for videotaping himself sexually assaulting a toddler, CNN affiliates report.

Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. He was convicted of lewdness with a child, sexual assault with a minor, attempted sexual assault with a minor and other related charges.

He showed no reaction as the verdict was read after more than four hours of jury deliberations, according to KLAS. Sentencing was set for May 8.

The crime triggered a national manhunt and search for the girl when the tape surfaced in 2007.

Jurors in Stiles' trial viewed the videotape, but the judge would not allow members sitting in the gallery to view it, and a screen was put up to block the jury box, said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, courts. Some members of the media were allowed to view the tape as well, but the judge did not want the reactions of reporters or the public to influence jurors, he said.

Nevada Legislative Committee Kills Bill Over Due Process Concerns

A Nevada bill affecting the lifetime supervision requirements imposed on sex offenders has been scrapped over due process concerns. From MSNBC:

A legislative committee has killed a bill that would have changed lifetime supervision requirements imposed on convicted sex offenders. The bill had faced criticism that the changes would violate constitutional due process protections.

Lawmakers also are considering a bill that would ensure that civil rights aren't automatically restored to convicted sex offenders who are sentenced to a lifetime of parole.

That bill has been criticized by legislators and the American Civil Liberties Union, who say it goes too far. Lawmakers say the Division of Parole and Probation, which introduced the bills, should focus on a host of other problems they face, which were recently outlined in a legislative audit.

Auditors say that the Division has not adequately supervised high-risk offenders, which can lead to repeat offenses.

States Stuggle With Adam Walsh Act Compliance

There has been a lot of Adam Walsh Act related news lately. The State of Wisconsin has requested an extension on the deadline to comply with the Walsh Act. From MSNBC:

The state of Wisconsin wants an extension on the deadline for changing its sex offender registry to conform to federal law.

Wisconsin Department of Corrections officials say they will likely have to add thousands of people to the list to comply with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.

The 2006 act requires the state to add juveniles to its online registry, add more details on offenders, and create classes of registrants who appear for different lengths of time. It sets a July 1 deadline for these changes.

No state is yet in compliance.

The director of Wisconsin's sex offender programs, Melissa Roberts, says the state will apply for a one-year extension so it has time to change its technology and get changes made to state law.

Meanwhile, Nevada legislators are considering whether the Walsh Act's supposed benefits are worth the costs. From the Las Vegas Sun:

The Adam Walsh Act was an instant controversy in Nevada. As soon as state lawmakers adopted the federal sex offender legislation in 2007, lawyers drew up lawsuits that have kept it tied up in court to this day.

But all the debate between advocates and attorneys over whether the Walsh Act is legal or logical now seems for naught. In this economy, the real question is not whether the Walsh Act is constitutional, but whether it’s too expensive. By many calculations, it is.

Sex offender management boards in California and Colorado have recommended their states reject the Adam Walsh Act — which changes the way states track and monitor sex offenders — in part because of the crippling cost. Other states, including Florida, Iowa, Virginia and Texas, are also doing the math and finding that the federal standard seems more expensive to adopt than to ignore, no matter the penalty.

And there are penalties. States have until July 27 to become compliant with Walsh sex offender regulations or risk losing federal finding. In Nevada, meeting the deadline could safeguard hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But carrying out the provisions of the Walsh Act could cost millions. In a state where the budget is beyond tight, we don’t know what the Walsh Act would cost. While states around us scramble do to the math, nobody in Nevada is crunching the numbers. So with the deadline for compliance looming, no one knows whether Nevada going to spend millions to save thousands.

Part of the reason Nevada doesn’t know how much Walsh will cost may lie in the state’s speedy adoption of the federal act. Nevada is one of eight states that passed Walsh regulations after Congress approved them in 2006. The vast remainder of states instead chose to evaluate the Walsh Act, considering its constitutionality first and then its cost.

Concerns now coming to light in these states were barely discussed in Nevada. Instead, issues with Walsh are being worked out in Nevada courts as a result of those lawsuits levied against the act.

Finally, Massachusetts may not be legally able to comply with the Walsh Act as the state's high court has ruled that sex offenders must be given hearing before they are classified by level. From the Boston Herald:

It’s the most sweeping sex offender tracking law in history - and it’s considered virtually illegal by the Bay State’s top court.

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act - named for the brutally murdered 6-year-old boy whose father became a crusader against predators - was passed by Congress in 2006. More than two years later, there’s been little progress toward one of the law’s landmark provisions: establishing the first-ever national system to keep tabs on those who have committed sexual crimes.

So far, no state has been deemed compliant with that law.

To be sure, adopting the law is complex. It requires instituting a new, uniform federal system for classifying the creepy cons.

But the law would serve a serious purpose: putting states in contact to make it much more difficult for sex offenders to cross state lines and escape the system.

Gov. Deval Patrick ’s Executive Office of Public Safety is working with Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office to find a way to institute the new rules in the Bay State. And while officials refused to comment publicly on their struggle to do so - no one wants to be seen as being soft on violent sex fiends - the powers that be privately acknowledge that the law is considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Judicial Court.

The SJC has ruled sex offenders have due process rights and are entitled to a hearing before they are classified by level. But Bay State officials believe that such rulings aren’t compatible with the Adam Walsh Act, which requires “immediate” classification and posting of information about offenders. Instead of the deliberative Sex Offender Registry Board taking into account past offenses and the age of the criminal, the federal law would lump offenders into one of the three tiers based solely upon their type of crime.

States have until July to prove they’re complying with the federal mandate, or they risk losing a portion of federal anti-crime funding. And for their part, Bay State officials insist they’re committed to complying with as much of the law as they can.

But victims’ rights advocates such as Laurie Myers don’t understand why it’s taking so long for the tracking system to get off the ground.

“It seems sex offenders always get the support from people who should be looking out for our interest,” said Myers, a member of the non-profit Community Voices. “Time and time again, sex offenders get breaks in this state. It seems like foot-dragging to me.”

Nevada AG To Appeal Decision Barring Retroactive Enforcement of Sex Offender Law

The Nevada Attorney General's Office has announced that they will appeal decision by a federal judge that enjoins the state from applying its new sex offender law retroactively.  You may view our previous coverage of this decision here. From The Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The Nevada attorney general's office will appeal a federal judge's decision that bars the state from applying a new sex offender law retroactively.

The attorney general's office filed a notice of appeal this week with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging Judge James Mahan's September decision.

Mahan ruled that a new sex offender law, Assembly Bill 579, was unconstitutional because it would punish convicted sex offenders who had paid their debt to society.

The law changes the way Nevada classifies sex offenders. Instead of categorizing them by risk to re-offend, the law categorizes sex offenders by the crime they were convicted of.

"Our mandate is to defend the laws of the state of Nevada. We will pursue that mandate," said Binu Palal, deputy attorney general.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and attorney Robert Langford challenged the law on behalf of about a dozen sex offenders.

Maggie McLetchie, staff attorney with the ACLU of Nevada, said she was disappointed with the attorney general's decision to appeal Mahan's decision. She said an appeal will be costly for the state, which is already facing budget woes. She said the ACLU has already billed the state about $140,000 in legal fees for the sex offender case.

"Our hope was to sit down and work collaboratively with the attorney general's office and legislators on this issue," she said. "There are ways to work this out and further public safety goals."

ACLU Executive Director Gary Peck said the law the attorney general's office is supporting isn't enhancing public safety. He called the appeal "a colossal waste of time, energy and money."

I've been a bit negligent in blogging about the Nevada case, so I'll try to cover it a bit more later this week.

Around the Web

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is running an interesting editorial entitled Upholding our rights: Even sex offenders are entitled to protections of Constitution.  The editorial argues that despite being "an unsympathetic lot, ... if the government is allowed to trample and shred the constitutional rights of [sex offenders], how long before authorities decide to take away yours?"

Yesterday's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show was "dedicated to a Senate bill targeting child predators."  During the show, which detailed the "extent and pervasiveness of child pornography trafficking in America," Ms. Winfrey asked viewers to contact their senators about U.S. Senate Bill 1738. Winfrey previously testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in support of a national database of convicted child abusers in the early 1990s.  The Chicago Sun-Times has more.

CrimProf Blog reports that the state of Utah reported-rape rate, which is already higher than the national average, "drastically underestimates the actual incidence of rape," according to a new report.  Nearly 13 percent of women surveyed said they had been "forcibly raped in their lifetimes," while an additional 16 percent were "sexually assaulted in other ways, such as child molestation, drug-facilitated rape and attempted rape."  The survey further indicates that less than 12 percent of those incidents were reported to police.  The Salt Lake Tribune has more.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson has issued a gag order in the criminal trial of U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, who recently pled not guilty to charges that he fondled a former case manager. According to the article, Judge Vinson "found it necessary to gag the attorneys and courthouse personnel on his own, without a request from prosecutors or Kent, [in order] 'to preserve a fair trial by an impartial jury by shielding jurors and potential jurors from prejudicial statements.'"  Judge Kent is the first federal judge to be charged with federal sex crimes.

Around the Web

A Wisconsin appellate court has ruled that "[p]olice who videotaped a man having sex with his comatose wife in her nursing home room violated his constitutional rights."  The man visited his wife, a stroke victim, at a nursing Home in Wisconsin.  According to the article, "[t]he ruling means prosecutors cannot introduce the videotapes as evidence in their case against [the man], who is charged with felony sexual assault for having intercourse with his wife without her consent at least three times in 2005."

An Arizona sex offender "who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enroll in Arizona schools has pleaded guilty to seven criminal charges ... and will go to prison for more than 70 years, a prosecutor said."  The man, who was 30, wore heavy pancake makeup to pose as a 7th grader named Casey.   The New York Times, Arizona Republic and Associated Press have more.

How Appealing reports that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed an entry of summary judgment "against minor females who filed a federal civil rights action alleging they were sexually abused by the then-Mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut."  How Appealing notes that the case involves former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, "who was previously convicted in federal court on seventeen of the eighteen criminal counts against him, including two counts charging him with acting under color of law to deprive these plaintiffs of their constitutional rights to be free from unwanted sexual abuse."  You may view the ruling here.

A Nebraska judge is being asked to decide "whether to return pornography to a convicted sex offender who says the state has no right to keep it."  The man is currently serving a probation sentence after being convicted in a case in which he was accused of propositioning two teenage boys.  The man has made a legal motion to have his computer and equipment returned to him, as they are no longer needed for evidence.

A federal judge in Nevada has issued a permanent injunction that "bars the state of Nevada from applying two new sex offender laws retroactively."  U.S. District Judge James Mahan noted that the laws, as applied to several sex offenders represented by the ACLU of Nevada, are unconstitutional. Judge Mahan however declined to rule on whether the new laws may be applied to those convicted of sex offenses in the future. SL&P has more.

Around the Web

Crime and Consequences points us to a Poughkeepsie Journal report that "a convicted sex offender who violated the terms of probation less than an hour after he left the courtroom in July received 1 1/2 to five years prison sentence today ." The man had been placed on probation after he admitted he had failed to notify police he had changed his address, as required by state law for most sex offenders. The original story may be viewed here.

Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court reversed a man's conviction for indecent exposure, "because neither of the female victims saw Ronnie James Isaac's genitals." FindLaw has more.  You may view the opinion here. H/T: How Appealing.

Two federal district judges in Montana have "reached opposite conclusions about the constitutionality of a federal law that requires sex offenders to register with local authorities when they move to another state."  District Judge Richard Cebull ruled last week that the Adam Walsh Act and the included Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) are constitutional, but District Judge Donald Molloy  ruled in June that the act didn't pass constitutional muster.  According to the article, "[t]he contradictory rulings mean the U.S. 9th Circuit Court will have to resolve the matter." The big question is whether a Circuit split will eventually emerge to get the Supreme Court's attention.

A New Jersey lawmaker, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, wants to require sex offenders "to divulge their personal e-mail addresses and share their passwords."  The new restrictions would allow parole officers to monitor convicted sex offenders' e-mail use.

A convicted Nevada sex offender will be tried in October "on charges he attempted to light the Nevada Supreme Court Building on fire in June to protest a change to sex offender registry laws."  The man pled not guilty to fourth-degree arson last week.  According to court records, the man told investigators he was "upset about changes made during the 2007 Legislative session in the sex offender tier system." The fire caused minor damage.

A Federal Challenge to Nevada's Sex Offender Registry Law

From an AP story about a new suit brought in federal court against the Nevada law:

Eager to protect children from sexual predators, Nevada and other states across the nation are adopting laws that publicize the names of offenders on the Internet.

But sex offenders say they have rights, too, and argue it's wrong to lump those guilty of minor offenses with the worst offenders. Some are challenging the laws.

"People think that imposing these draconian retroactive laws are a way to keep their children safe," said Margaret McLetchie, an American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada lawyer.

McLetchie and Robert Langford, who represent 27 unnamed plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit, want to block two sex-offender laws from taking effect in Nevada....

The laws, which they say are unconstitutional, were tailored to meet standards under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which President Bush signed in 2006.

Nevada was among the first to pass the laws that would allow the state to post on the Internet the names, photos, home and work addresses and vehicle descriptions of offenders who've served probation or prison sentences on convictions as far back as 1956....

Borror noted similarities between the Ohio and Nevada laws, and said officials in Ohio were watching the Nevada case with interest.

The Ohio registry went into effect Jan. 1 despite objections that it punished offenders twice, broke plea deals and represented a violation of states' rights by Congress. Furthermore, by creating the registry, the state Legislature usurped powers reserved to the courts, Borror said.

From the news account, it is difficult to discern the actual legal arguments being made against the Nevada statute. After all, from the perspective of states, the AWA registry might not differ substantially from the registry system that was already in place.

HT: Crime & Consequences

Gas and Sex Crimes

After the recent story where a woman was arrested for exchanging sex for gas cards, there is more proof that gas is becoming the preferred means of exchange for prostitution services. A legal brothel in Nevada is giving away gas vouchers with the purchase of other sexual services:

A Nevada brothel is trying to stimulate business by offering free gasoline.

Clients of the Shady Lady Ranch will get a $50 gas voucher if they fork out $300 -- worth about one hour's worth of services -- at the brothel in Beatty, Nevada, 130 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Owner James Davis said he already has had to order another $1,000 set of gas vouchers because the first $1,000 were spent in one week.

"It's rocking along. We're doing quite well. June and July historically are not big months," said Davis, who is co-owner of the brothel along with his wife Bobbi, in a telephone interview.

The $50 rebate would roughly cover the cost of a round trip drive from Las Vegas to the ranch.